


Escaping the Heat

by Meilan_Firaga



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Friends With Benefits, Fuckyeahdarcylewis 50 Reasons Fic Challenge, No Strings Attached, Sex Positive Darcy Lewis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 15:23:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10811712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meilan_Firaga/pseuds/Meilan_Firaga
Summary: New York City is hot. Hot enough that Darcy's miserable. So, time to resort to an old trick from her college days. For the FYDL 50 Reasons Challenge.





	Escaping the Heat

**Author's Note:**

> Excuse me while I saunter back into fandom, completely ignore some unfinished works I promised to update something like five or six months ago, and post this story that I've been sitting on since November. I promise I'll actually update things some day!
> 
> For the FYDL 50 Reasons Challenge over on tumblr. I had reason #37: They have air conditioning and you don't.
> 
> I got way too much joy out of coming up with pop culture references for this fic.

Summer heat in New York City was nothing to joke about. In addition to the general misery that comes from summer heat in any other city, summer heat in New York included the always terrible bonus of gross sweltering city smells and even angrier New Yorkers with bad sweat and body odor. Also, paying to live in New York often meant sacrificing such life affirming luxuries as the blissful escape of air conditioning. Living in a tiny apartment on an intern’s non-existent salary with a scientist who was too oblivious to notice the heat meant that Darcy Lewis definitely did not have air conditioning. 

Sure, eighty-one degree heat didn’t sound that bad to someone who’d survived a summer internship in the desert of New Mexico. Hell, compared to some of the record highs in Puente Antiguo eighty-one was a balmy day. However, the desert didn’t have hellish humidity and a distinct lack of ventilation like her shoebox in the Big Apple. Rolling onto her back in the middle of the living room floor, Darcy heaved a miserable sigh. She was wearing nothing more than her thinnest cotton bra and panties. Her long hair was twisted into two sloppy buns on top of her head to keep her neck and shoulders as bare as possible. Her glasses wouldn’t stay perched on her face thanks to the constant stream of sweat coating her entire body, so she’d been forced to opt for contacts.

With a massive surge of effort, Darcy rolled to her side and tugged her laptop across the floor. The heat was too much. Tony wasn’t in town, which meant she couldn’t beg her way into the tower for relief. She was going to have to rely on a tried and true method from her college days: the surprise booty call. Unfortunately, since she hadn’t expected the summer to be so miserable she didn’t actually have an established list of booty calls. After the disaster of dating a Hydra agent in disguise, she hadn’t exactly been up to putting herself out there. Still, New York had to have decent prospects for non-clingy, no strings, entertaining sex, and she knew just where to look.

It took longer than it had in the past to get into Maria Hill’s top secret superhero address book. Tony must have told Hill that Darcy was taking a peek every now and again to see if anything interesting had popped up. You could shut down an agent’s spy agency, but you couldn’t make the agent stop spying--which was exactly what Darcy was counting on. There were more names than she remembered from her last check up, and more than one of them was local. The chances for air conditioning weren’t looking great, though.

And then she found it.

One word, typed under the heading “Powers” on a single entry.

Sorcerer.

Fuck yeah! Darcy Lewis was going to get her Hogwarts on by getting on a wizard.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Doctor Stephen Strange was enjoying the peace of being the only sorcerer in the New York Sanctum. With lines of communication established, he’d sent every available hand he had to assist in the rebuilding of the Sanctum in London. Several of them were eager to go, and Stephen would forever deny that their enthusiasm had anything to do with his insistence at maintaining nearly frigid temperatures inside the building during the summer heat. He was used to a certain level of privilege when it came to living in New York City, and the time to sacrifice that privilege was not going to be during the hottest month of the year.

A sharp, unexpected knock on the front door startled Stephen from his afternoon reading. As he stood from his chair, the Cloak of Levitation made to drape itself around his shoulders. He waved it off with a stern glare. They’d discussed both not making a spectacle in front of strangers who might knock on the door by accident and how little a cloak’s warmth was needed in the middle of August. The poor thing actually seemed to sulk a bit as he made his way to the door. Even more startling than the knock was what he found outside the door when he opened it. A curvy brunette leaned against the doorframe wearing a sweat-drenched grey tank top and the tiniest pair of denim shorts he had ever seen. Her legs and feet were bare but for a pair of rainbow polka dot flip flops and neon purple toenail polish. A pair of hot pink, cat-eye sunglasses had slipped down to the tip of her nose to reveal a striking pair of green eyes. What must have been half a metric ton of hair was piled atop her head in two tall buns that could almost approximate ears. 

“Eh,” she said, producing a carrot with actual leafy greens on its larger end from behind her back. She took a bite and chewed carefully before continuing. “What’s up, Doc?” Over the top of the sunglasses, her eyes traveled from his face down the length of his body and back up in one swift, assessing motion. Her eyebrows lifted nearly to her hairline. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed the carrot into the foliage to one side of the stoop. Gracing him with a devious smirk, she held out her hand. “Darcy Lewis. Intern, scientist wrangler, and only lady on Midgard with the balls to taze a Norse god.” Before Stephen could formulate a response the woman--Darcy--ducked around him and sauntered into the Sanctum’s entryway. He stood staring out into the street in shock for a second too long. A low whistle came from behind him. “Thor have mercy, your file did not say anything about you having an ass that spectacular!” 

He closed the door behind him out of sheer habit when he turned to face her, a bit of annoyance starting to creep in amidst the surprise. “Do you make a habit out of barging into places uninvited and sexually harassing the residents?” he asked, his tone mild. He leaned back against the door, crossing his arms in front of his chest. Seemingly unperturbed, Darcy propped her sunglasses just in front of the buns in her hair, pushed her arms over her head, and arched her back in a full body stretch. Stephen found his eyes drawn from her ample bosom to the strip of skin across her stomach that was revealed as her shirt rode up.

“Not really,” she admitted. “Well, not really to the sexually harassing part. I’ve gotten really good at the barging in uninvited when I’ve got a new superhero to add to my ‘To-Annoy’ list.” Her gaze fell from his face to make another pass over the rest of him. “Seriously, dude, I was expecting more Raistlin Majere than Severus Snape, but you have got the attractive, brooding wizard thing down to an art.”

“I am a sorcerer, not a wizard, Miss Lewis,” he insisted. “Would you please tell me what you’re doing here?”

“Call me Miss Lewis again and I’m going to start calling you Professor and asking for detention in the dungeons,” she quipped. “Here’s the deal, David Copperfield: I live the sad, but fulfilling life of a barely paid intern to an astrophysicist. While this is exactly the life I would choose for myself since it’s got the fun annoying hero types perk, it does come with the enormous drawback of not being able to afford air conditioning during this terrible heat wave. Additionally, the pages of my little black book are now full of nothing but crossed out names. Fortunately for me, I happen to have access to a database of superheroes with no time or emotions to spare for a relationship that might be willing to accommodate such a fine specimen of female as I happen to be. Out of all the single, emotionally stunted heroes currently living in New York, I pick you.” Her eyes locked onto his, and he found himself under the most intense scrutiny he’d dealt with since The Ancient One. “So, what do you say? You up for a no strings sexual friendship with yours truly?”

Stephen dropped his head into his hands, pinching sharply at the bridge of his nose. “Did you just offer to have sex with me in order to escape into my  _ air conditioning _ ?”

Darcy sighed. “Damn. I was hoping to blind you from that fact with impressive tits. You really are smart.” There was a dull pressure at his wrist, and then Darcy pulled his hand from his eyes, tilting her head back to look him in the face. She was close enough that he could feel the heat emanating from her body. “Look, A/C is a part of it, but the fact also remains that I am a grown ass woman who happens to really like sex. I find you highly attractive--seriously, the pictures of you from your fancy brain doctor days are nothing compared to you in person now. I would assume from the fact that you haven’t used your magic powers to drop me on a street corner several blocks away that you either find me moderately appealing or amusing enough to put up with, right?” The smirk flashed across her face again, but it didn’t keep him from noticing the tiny shiver that ran through her as cold air began to affect her sweat-soaked skin. In answer to her question, he ran one steady hand from her elbow up to her shoulder. The next shiver had nothing to do with temperature.

“Either you’re very convincing,” he muttered, “or I am completely taken in by your quirky charm and pop culture references.” He slid his free hand from her hip to the small of her back, not bothering to hide the slight tremor.

“Oh, if you think the references are bad now, just wait,” she assured him. She stretched up onto the tips of her toes, wrapping her arms over his shoulders. “If you don’t keep me entertained I’ll start imitating cute video game characters like Pikachu.” Just as she finished speaking another shiver ran over her, this time once again influenced by temperature. Stephen smirked and drew her flush against him.

“I’ll be sure and keep you entertained, then. Pokemon have always annoyed me.” He bent forward, planning to keep her from launching into another rambling diatribe the old fashioned way. Just before their lips would have met, a rustle of fabric swooped between them. Stephen heaved a sigh, pulling his head back, and removing Darcy’s arms from his shoulders long enough for the cloak to settle in its proper place. He rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. “Darcy, meet the Cloak of Levitation whose name I am now considering changing to the Cloak of Cock Blocking in every record of its existence.” The cloak fluttered indignantly. Darcy giggled.

“You know, I have seen some really cool shit, but I think this beats everything but the weird portal that eats shoes and car keys.” One corner of the cloak moved up from behind Stephen, hovering like a hand. Darcy took it, shook it, and made vague greeting noises. Seconds after she let go, both sides of the cloak swooped forward and dragged her fully against Stephen, wrapping them both in soft fabric. She cocked one eyebrow again, smirking up at the sorcerer she was now pressed against. “Pretty sure that just elevated it from cock block to wingman, dude.”

“Indeed.” He didn’t need the cloak’s insistence to close the gap between their lips. Her kiss was firm, and she didn’t waste any time in slipping her tongue into his mouth. A series of tiny mewling noises worked their way from her throat as Stephen set his hands to wandering. He slid them up from her waist to her ribs, barely brushing his thumbs over the bottoms of her breasts before they traveled to her back. He traced the length of her spine with his fingertips, ghosted his palms over her backside, and then grasped the back of her thighs and hoisted her up until she wrapped her legs around his waist. When he finally broke the kiss he smirked at the young woman in his arms.

The cloak was gone, and they weren’t in the entryway anymore.

Darcy looked around them with a mixture of surprise and approval. “You are just full of fun surprises,” she insisted. Tipping her head onto his shoulder, she traced a line from his collarbone to his jaw with her tongue. “What else you got?”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Some time later, Darcy woke up tangled in a sea of skin, warmth, and worn cotton sheets. She was entwined against Stephen’s side as he lay on his back in the bed. He didn’t appear to have slept, though he hadn’t bothered to dress. A book hovered to one side, pages turning whenever he passed his free hand in front of it. Whatever was on the pages looked like nothing more than strange scribbles to Darcy. His other arm was wrapped about her shoulders to hold her against him.

“Is this the part where you tell me it was all a game and you’re secretly my true love?” Stephen asked in a flat voice, never looking away from his book.

Darcy wrinkled her nose. “Nah.” She arched her back in another full body stretch, reveling in the rise of goosebumps on her skin as it was exposed to the cool air around them. “Do I seem like the stable relationship type? I mean, there’s a reason I think emotionally unavailable save-the-world types are the best kind to keep around.”

Stephen snorted, waving his hand and sending the book to the nightstand. He glanced over at her, a smirk on his lips and one eyebrow raised. “What makes you think I’m emotionally unavailable?”

“You’re kidding right?” She leveled a pointed look at him even as her leg slipped higher up over his hips. “You live in a magic clubhouse doing your best impression of a mystical House. The only thing more emotionally unavailable is one of Tony’s pass the butter robots.”

“Why would anyone make a robot to pass them butter?” Stephen slipped his hand beneath the sheets and traced a line from Darcy’s sternum to her navel. She shivered a bit, arching towards his touch.

“Have you ever met Tony Stark?” 

“As a matter of fact, I haven’t,” he mumbled into the smooth skin at the side of her throat. Her pulse thundered against his lips, her breaths coming a bit more quickly. “So, are you the only one allowed to initiate these little friendly get-togethers, or is it going to be a two way street?”

“I don’t know,” she teased, barely managing to hold a light tone through her increasingly breathless pants. “You might need to convince me one more time.”

Sinking his teeth lightly into the skin between her neck and shoulder, Stephen growled out a tiny laugh. “I’ll see what I can do, then.”


End file.
